The Phoenix Druid - Death, Fire, LIFE!

(Future Link to forum build)

The Phoenix Druid is made up of the Druid (61 pts), the Cabalist (11 pts), and the Purifier (4 pts) souls. This build is intended as a solo leveling build with a lot of versatility, that's really fun to play. Though the Phoenix can operate at range, most damage will be done up close and personal in melee. Accordingly, the druid will be moving around a lot (ranged/turrent dps bores me), and the incredible majority of abilities are cast instantly.

I consider this build of intermediate difficulty, primarily because you have so much you can do. The challenge comes in using or finding a use for nearly all your abilities. You have tanking, healing, and ranged/melee dps pets. The healing and ranged dps pets can be toggled from single target to area effect. You can start attacking at range (single or multiple targets), teleport in front of or behind your enemy, or teleport them to you! You can then beat up on your target with a variety of melee attacks. The Phoenix can plan ahead with a sleep crowd control ability, Slumber; control casting with two interrupts (Grim Silence comes with a five second, uh, silence); and if necessary, escape and teleport away with Dark Passage. Survivability (for you and your party) is increased with a number of buffs, self/pet heals and absorbs, and the targetable heals and absorbs from the Purifier tree.

Let's look at a typical attack sequence that I use in my soloing. And let's assume that the target is tough enough for you to get through one rotation.

Eruption of Life - damages at range, and boosts the damage of your next 5-9 attacks with Life Surge. Do this at max range and begin closing. Renew as needed.

Trickster's Bolt - ranged damage while you get close enough for your teleport/charge below. Note that the range of Fae Extraction (when available) will make this unnecessary.

Fae Step - your teleport/charge. Off the global cooldown, if you time this right, you can beat your Trickster's Bolt to the target. Stay in front if you have a healing/dps pet out, toggle Through Step to appear behind if you have your tanking pet out.

Fae Mimicry (61 point ability in druid tree roots) - Off the global cooldown, this basically doubles the damage of your next four single target attacks (not damage over time) with life damage. Worth the wait. Go ahead and use every time it's up.

Resounding Blow (top ability in druid tree branches) - Highest damage, adds 50% to the damage of your next damaging ability. Note that the cooldown of this attack is reduced every time Life Surge (above) goes off.

Combined Effort - Next highest damage, buffs the single target damage of you and your pet. Use this every time it comes off cooldown.

Essence Strike - Next highest damage, renews your Eruption of Life automatically. Also use this every time it comes off cooldown.

Fervent Strike - Next highest damage, your bread and butter attack. No cooldown other than the global; use this when nothing higher is available.

Repeat as needed. Fae Extraction does not share a cooldown with Fae Step, so you can alternate their use, minimizing travel time to targets, and keeping the action going!

You may want to throw in your available damage over time abilities if the fight is long enough. These include Crushing Force, Curse of Discord, and Dark Water (stackable). Area of effect attacks like Wild Strike, Bound Fate, and your pet AOE toggles Fae Dispersion and Spirit of Upheaval are useful for groups of enemies. Just watch your aggro!

Feel free to experiment and be creative! For example, you can wring out a little more damage with an absorb up on you and/or your tank pet and the Purifier buff Sign of Wrath active. Another really fun thing to do is cast the Cabalist ability Tyranny of Death (delayed AOE damage, no initial aggro) on as many targets as you can, leaving enough time to gather them up. The first one that goes off triggers the rest, so poppoppoppop, down they go! (fun at parties)

You can challenge yourself by adding Venom and Explosive Philters to your action bar, along with planar items like Mending Seed and Stone Rune. Try to also make use of these items in the various situations you run across. Just note that some items share cooldowns.

While this build encourages versatility to adapt to a variety of situations, macros may be helpful in some routine cases, like beating on a (single target) boss. Remembering that certain abilities are limited to higher levels, here's an example of a macro that combines the relevant/repeatable portion of the rotation above:

This macro's icon copies that shown for Resounding Blow. Error messages are suppressed, then abilities are cast in priority order depending on availability. With no cooldown, Fervent Strike will be cast if nothing else is available. Just remember: one press, one ability. Keep pressing to make your way down the priority list.

Addons aren't necessary for this build, though addons like King Boss Mods and Rift Meter might be helpful as you move into expert dungeons and raids.

Chain armor is best for the Phoenix of course, along with two-handed weapons. As I've leveled, I've found that (in general) quarterstaves have superior stats for the Phoenix versus 2-h maces at the same item level. Stat priority on equipment/runes/augments etc.: Hit (level 50 up, who likes to miss?), Wisdom, Spell Power, Spell Critical Hit, then Crit Power. If you decide to do Player vs. Player content, PvP gear will also include valor and vengeance; the higher, the better. Also, keep your eye on the gear available at the Planar vendors and faction quartermasters as you level; there's a lot of nice upgrades, runes and so forth that can help fill in any gaps.

Other situational abilities to note:
* Thorns of Ire is good in groups to add to your and your party's damage on hit.
* Hidden Path will remove curses, poisons, and disease from you and your pet.
* Peace of the Forest will restore mana at the cost of health

With all this in mind, the most important thing is to have fun! Get to know your various abilities, and get creative on making use of them. Do that, you'll get to know your calling and your role, and take on enemies that would send lesser builds to the soul healer! (cue maniacal laughter) If you decide to, you'll also be able to really contribute in group content. You might not have the very highest damage, but you'll be close, and you'll bring a variety of tools that just might make the difference between a wipe/loss and a win. Good luck, and good hunting!

Thanks for reading! And I look forward to any suggestions and other constructive feedback.

P.S. In case you have a bard, beastmaster or archon in your group, you do not need to use thorns of ire and should then ignore step 2 and 5 to 7

The reasoning behind this is simple: You can keep combined effort and Resounding blow on cooldown all the time. You will have a 50% damage increase crushing force (Highest damage ability of the druid but done overtime) and always refresh it on the last tick of the dot. It's a huge DPS increase and I'm rolling 7k DPS at level 58 with those 2 macros.

P.S. In case you have a bard, beastmaster or archon in your group, you do not need to use thorns of ire and should then ignore step 2 and 5 to 7

The reasoning behind this is simple: You can keep combined effort and Resounding blow on cooldown all the time. You will have a 50% damage increase crushing force (Highest damage ability of the druid but done overtime) and always refresh it on the last tick of the dot. It's a huge DPS increase and I'm rolling 7k DPS at level 58 with those 2 macros.

Thanks Snap! This can make a Phoenix more Expert and Raid ready, and Shaman is certainly a fun soul to throw in the mix as desired.